Ep. 293 NEED A BREAKTHROUGH?

Mark. Yeah.

We need a breakthrough.

I need a breakthrough.

I know. Look, if you've ever been in that position, you want to be unforgettable. But I need that breakthrough. What do you do?

Anyone can give a presentation. Few deliver unforgettable presentations. What's the difference? You're about to find out. Welcome to the Unforgettable presentations podcast with your hosts, world champion speakers and coaches, Mark Brown.

Mark Brown, your life tells a story, and there's someone out there who needs to hear it.

And Darren Lacroix. And Darren Lacroix.

Stage time. Stage time. Stage time.

Ready for some powerful presentation. Ahas. Let's dive right in.

Hey, Mark.

Yep.

Who's in your mastermind? Do you have a mastermind? Do you surround yourself with people that you've helped for no good reason but to help? Like, this is where the people pleasers. Excellent. But it's time to let others please you.

Yep. Important to you. You're right. Yep, yep, yep. This is good advice right here because, you know, it's easy to align yourself with people who you can help. And many of us have very altruistic hearts, which is a good thing. But sometimes we get to a level and we're there and we're not sure how to get to the next level. So here's a question. Do you need a breakthrough?

Yeah. If you're feeling stuck. You know, sometimes we just beat our head against the wall. We do the same habits, and we're not willing to change them because these habits. Well, how do you get that breakthrough? You got to change some habits. You got to have a new perspective. So who do you ask? Who are you willing to ask? Are you willing to humbly ask? Maybe there's a course, maybe there's a book that could help you that you're not even aware of. Ask, Ask. And it's amazing. A lot of people, especially speakers, they like to mentor, they like to help out, and they like to be asked. As long as you're asking in humility and sincerity. There's some people who. They'll never help you anyway. But if you keep asking, you're gonna find. You know, it's biblical. Seek in ye shall find. But if you ain't seeking, that's on you.

You know, Darren, you talk about your love of comedy and your desire to do it, even though you were not very good at it. You're very. You're very transparent about that. But you asked. And because you asked, you were able to get a breakthrough and to break into comedy. And now the individual you Asked gets to work with you. Was it now, 35 years later? I mean, people, friends, please understand, when you don't ask, the answer is a guaranteed no. When you don't ask, the answer is a guaranteed no. And some of us don't ask for various reasons. We don't ask because of pride. We don't ask because we're intimidated. We don't ask because, you know, we don't. What will they think of me? Who am I? I'm not worthy of asking. So we bang our heads against the wall, proverbially, and we try everything that we know and still get stuck. And one of the sad truths is, and I dealed with this. When we don't ask, we don't realize that we don't know what we don't know. We may have a window of understanding and knowledge, and that's all we know. But outside of that, there are individuals, experts, who would love for you to ask them, who'd be willing to pour into you and offer time. They'll see something in you and they'll say, I'm happily mentor you, and once in a while you get a real blessing. They won't even charge you. But most people you ask for the expertise will say, look, let's have an agreement, and we'll work with you, and they'll invest the time in you. That's what coaches do. But unless we ask one, we do not know what we do not know, and number two, we'll guarantee we're guaranteed to not have the opportunity to learn and grow and experience the breakthrough that we so desperately need.

Yeah. And we've got to be that sponge. We've got to be that sponge that's open and eager, and it's almost like that. You got to reach your enough is enough moment. You've got to reach your enough is enough moment that you know our buddy, or even more your buddy Les Brown says if you keep on doing what you've been doing, you keep on getting what you've been getting, well, that ain't gonna lead you to a breakthrough. Where can you ask who can you ask? If you're part of Toastmasters, Ask if there's some Toastmasters who would be qualified to give you that address. If you're in nsa, who in your chapter could you ask? They might lead you to someone else in nsa. Stage time. That's why we have our coaching calls. That's why we have our business mentoring calls. It's a comfortable place. We create this atmosphere where it's a place to ask in my church, I'm in a couple of small groups. That's a place that I'm very comfortable asking. And we've got to be willing to ask. And then we've got to apply it. We've got to follow up.

Yeah, it's one thing to get recommended.

The book, it's another thing to go do it. You know, we teach. We have game changers, which is going on right now. When you listen to this, we're in a room in Las Vegas with Chris McGuire, Ford sakes, Craig Valentine, Ed Tate, Richard Bliss, Jennifer Lear. So we're surrounding ourselves with people that we can get insights from. Why? Because what's awesome is we're all there, the faculty, we're there to teach. And we're also smart enough to sit and take notes. If you've ever sat next to Ed Tate during one of these sessions, he takes more notes than anybody. He is a spongebob. But we've got to put on that sponge mindset. Sometimes we buy that book, okay, and you feel good, but then the book comes in and it goes on the pile of other books you haven't read yet. I took a course recently with Jeff Civilico because it's about getting booked. And I thought, you know what I need? If I'm going to teach it, I need to know what Jeff. In my opinion, Jeff Civilico is one of the most booked speakers I've ever seen on the planet. He's a hustler. And. But I was like, if I'm going to teach it, I need to know what he knows. And even though we have a different business model, I got some great insights. And one of the things he says, there's no magic bullet. We think that there's this. You just do this or this. And he's like, there's no magic bullet. You've got to do everything to that next level, to that Nth level. And he is that. He lives that. He's a hustler, but he's got processes in place, and I wanted to see them and so I can pass them along with his permission. I'm not teaching his content, but with his permission. I'm like, ooh, can I share this type of thing? But we've gotta be constantly growing. Breakthroughs come from growth. Breakthroughs come from asking, from sitting and listening, from gaining a new perspective. But then, most importantly, applying, as Ford Sakes says, doesn't matter which. No, it only matters what you execute.

It doesn't matter what you know, only what you execute. He has hammered that into Us for the last several years, Board six, who's a million dollar, has a multimillion dollar business and part of our faculty. And I get to ask yourself, you know, okay, so who am I aligning myself with? Who do I have regular communication with? Darren and I are part of a mastermind that we schedule, or schedule, if you're British, our meetings every single month. And every time we meet, we don't leave a meeting without scheduling the next meeting. And we have gentlemen who are CSPs, certified speaking professionals, toastmasters, world champions, all with different business models and different clientele. But the encouragement that we get, the advice that we get. And in our meetings we always say, here's my ask. Here's my ask. And we share our ask with our brothers. I call them my brothers. And it's always an idea, a technique, and sometimes the answer is, you know what, I got some more for you. Talk to me offline. People say, wait, you're all your CSPs, you're world champions, you speak all over the world. We still need to ask for help. We tell everyone all the time. Patricia Fripp, the first woman president of the National Speakers association hall of Fame speaker legend, is a mentor to us. I can call Fripp and ask for advice and she will give it, but if I don't ask, she won't give it. Fripp was one of the people I never told this Darren Fripp was, was assigned get an assignment to speak at NSA Georgia many years ago. And I had just moved to Georgia in the early 2000s and Fripp called me up and said, mark, I got NSA Georgia. I wanted to come and share a particular talk. I heard you give, come with me, I'll put you in a hotel. Come with me and share that particular principle 15 minutes with my audience at NSA Georgia. Now, I had asked for her help and her guidance and she saw an opportunity to help me to get in front of other professionals to share my expertise and open a window. Now I've been recruited to be part of NSA Georgia and I've been serving as a speaker coach, an instructor for their academy for the last couple three years. Here's my point. If I had never asked her to help me originally, I wouldn't have had a chance to go and speak at NSA for the first time. We wouldn't have the chance to be a co author with her on our book deliver Unforgettable Presentations. So I'm telling you that by asking, it was a breakthrough for me in my personal business and my personal growth as a speaker. And there are times Fripp will hear me at an event and she will call me and leave me a voicemail if I'm not there and said, mark, that was fab. Fab, fabulous. So I get the mentoring, the direction and the encouragement that I get when I. When I do get a breakthrough from people like Patricia Fripp. I'm not name dropping here. I'm simply sharing the experience. I've had some of the breakthroughs I've had because I was willing to ask someone who I knew was better, wiser, more experienced than I, who could help me get to another level in my growth as a presenter. And get this, professionals still ask. Seasoned pros have masterminds. Seasoned pros bounce ideas off other professionals and get coached when needed. Ask. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. And if you don't ask, you'll never know what you don't know.

You are the CEO of your life and your career. Are you willing to ask, and what do I say? The landscape is changing so rapidly. AI is changing everything. But how do you use it? How you strategically use it? What are you using it for? Ask. You know, I just had a call with Tim Guard. I asked him for feedback on a new demo video that I had put together, and we went off on this other conversation I didn't see coming. And he was very adamant. He goes, you need to use AI and finish that book that you started. And what he was saying in the whole context of it, I was like, whoa. I gained clarity and I had asked something completely different, but I got what I needed in another area, my dream area, that I didn't know. So we got to humbly ask, be a sponge and then literally apply. Read the book. Reading the book is great. Taking the class is great. But what have you applied from the book, from the class, or nothing's gonna change and you're not gonna get the breakthrough.

And, you know, you're probably tired of hearing us talk about this, but there's so much value in getting a coach as well. A coach can take you to a level that you are trying to hit, but you can't. And I know, Darren, we have talked about Dave McElhinney many, many times. But he was coaching you 20, 25 years ago when, when you were going through the speaking process of wanting to become a better presenter and you entered the contest in Toastmasters and he was guiding you along the way, and he got to a certain level and he, you know, he knew for you to break through, to get to the World Championship and deliver, you needed somebody who was, in his opinion, more qualified to do that. He was a coach who recommended another coach for Darren. So watch. Sometimes the breakthrough comes from a coach who was referred by another coach because of their area of expertise, their track record, and the way they can relate to you as individuals. We're not saying you have to have us coach you, even though we do that. But who is helping you get to the next level? Darren often refers, using the comedy metaphor of opening act, middle acts and headliners. Do you have access to headliners? And if you do, have you asked them? You've heard the story of my contest running Toastmasters 30 years ago. Yeah, Mark, bring us back. For one reason. I went to the Toastmasters World Championship 31 years ago. Did not win, place, or show. I was an also ran. I made the contest necessary for numbers.

Okay.

But someone walked into my life and said, you have potential. If you're willing, I. I'll help you. What? World champion David Brooks thought I had potential. I was new at this whole thing, but I said yes, and I got the breakthrough. He asked questions I would never have thought of. He gave me guidance I didn't have any perspective on. And in one year, I had a breakthrough. I was much better than I was a year earlier, and I won the contest in 94. Not a brag isn't about me winning. It's about the fact that David Brooks had approached eight finalists who didn't win to offer the chance for a breakthrough. I was the only one who said yes in 1994. I was the only one who went back to the finals in 95, and I was the only one to walk away with a trophy of any kind because I saw that he was willing to help me to experience a breakthrough. I took it. I learned, I grew. And since then, I continue to have breakthroughs because I continue to get help from seasoned professionals who are willing to invest in me. I go and meet NSA legends at their house if I have to. I drove two hours to meet with Waldo Waldman in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago. Why? Because I knew I could learn from him, and he was willing to pour into me what it cost me half a day. So what? It was wonderful. Are you willing to say yes to those who can offer you a breakthrough? My mind is blown that several other people didn't even say yes to someone who was where they wanted to be. Think about that and ask yourself, what is the route to my breakthrough? Do I have access to A headliner. Am I willing to ask them for help and apply what they taught the book test? Darren?

Yep. Get the book. People ask me, how do you know? I want to learn to be funnier. And the first thing I tell them is, go get this book. And Judy Carter Stand Up Comedy, the book that Chris McGuire recommended to me. And then I say, come back and you can ask me anything. And very few people come back. And those who do, when I ask, well, what'd you think of the book? Oh, well, I didn't get it yet, but I'm gonna. And it's like, well, then you have no business and asking me another question. Because if you ain't going to follow through on that, you'll never follow through on the tough stuff. And what I love, that David McElhenney, my other coach, said to me was, Darren, I can't take you where I have not been. I can't take you where I have not been. Which is meaning he had never been to the world Championship. He helped me along the way, but he had never met. He can't speak from that experience. And so who are you asking? Ask anyway, but be careful, because you can get some bad advice from people who have not been there and done that. That's why. Like Jeff, Jeff Civilico. He comes, you know, creates his course. And he's one of the most book speakers I know. I didn't even question. I didn't even read the description. I'm just like, I know you. I see you speaking anywhere and everywhere. I want to know what you know. So who are you going to. Are they credible to give you that advice? Look, if you ask me to, even though I'm a coach, if you ask me to help, help dig a story out of you, what we call a story dig, I would refer you to Mark Brown or Jennifer Leone. That's not my skill set. You asked me how to use the stage and how to deliver the dialogue of the characters. Okay. That I can do the other. I'm not. It's not really my strength. So even in a coach, be careful because they all have their own skill sets, you know, Chris McGuire, writing, writing, writing like he wants to see text. He wants.

That's.

That's his world. That's what he knows. So ask. Ask the right people. Follow through and apply it.

That's right.

Your breakthroughs will happen.

That's right. And maybe you need a breakthrough, you know, in the next couple of weeks, months or thereafter. Look for sources that can provide that kind of breakthrough for you. It may Sound like a shameless plug. Okay, But I know here at Stage Time University, we have seen our members have breakthroughs through community, through our courses and through our time together. If you need that breakthrough, be willing to ask. See who you ask and ask yourself, how can I help someone else have a breakthrough as a result of my own growth and my own success? You can receive, but you can also give. Give somebody else a breakthrough as well.

So if you're listening to this, we're at Game Changers right now. We only do that once a year, but throughout the year we have workshops based on the skills. So Game Changers based on the business. Regular workshops, we call them master workshops, are based on the skill. Mark and I are doing one coming up. Better stories, better business. Go to stagetime workshops.com and that will take you right to our upcoming schedule. If, if we're the right ones for you, be a sponge dive in and we'd love to have you join us so you can get that breakthrough. We have another one coming up. Own the stage, have a couple VIP spots open for that to get coached and look, come on down, have some fun. But even if we're not the right people, find out who is. Ask and then apply. Mark Brown, take us home.

My friends need a breakthrough. You know what to do. We'll see you next week.

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